Plastically and resiliently sealed railway hopper gate assembly

ABSTRACT

AN OTHERWISE CONVENTIONAL RAILWAY HOPPER CAR DISCHARGE GATE ASSEMBLY MODIFIED TO TRANSPORT FINELY DIVIDED LADING BY FIXING TO THE FRAME ABOVE THE GATE BENDABLE PLATES AND BARS FOR PRESSING THE GATE AT SIDES AND REAR AGAINST ITS SEAT AND APPLYING PLASTIC CEMENT BETWEEN THE GATE AND THE FRAME ADJACENT THE GATE-RECEIVING OPENING IN THE FRONT OF THE FRAME.

W. L. FLOEHR PLASTICALLY AND RESILIENTLY SEALED RAILWAY Nov. 23, 1971 HOPPER GATE ASSEMBLY Filed Oct. 24, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventor: Janet L.F1oehr his Attorney Nov.- 23, 1971 w. L. FLOEHR PLASTICALLY AND RESILIENTLY SEALED RAILWAY HOPPER GATE ASSEMBLY 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 24, 1969 IIIIIIIIIIII Inventor: Walter L. Floehr [Ill/Ill III/II MTG w w R his Attorney Nov. 23, 1971 w. L. FLOEHR 3,621,793

PLASTICALLY AND RESILIENTLY SEALED RAILWAY HOPPER GATE ASSEMBLY Filed 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet a 3 f k\ \\\\\\\i-*:?

FIG. 5

FIG. 7' FIG. 8

FIG. 9 FIG. 10

Invenior:

Walter L. Floeh'r his Attorney United States Patent Oifice 3,621,793 PLASTICALLY AND RESILIENTLY SEALED RAILWAY HOPPER GATE ASSEMBLY Walter L. Floehr, Toledo, Ohio, assignor to Midland- Ross Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio Filed Oct. 24, 1969, Ser. No. 869,274 Int. Cl. 361d 7/ 20, 7/22, 7/26 US. Cl. 105-282 A 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION While the sealing of a discharge gate assembly of a railway hopper car against leakage of Portland cement or other finely divided or comminuted lading is not a new problem, solutions heretofore proposed generally have involved major and correspondingly expensive departures from a conventional assembly in the design of either the gate or the gate frame or both. As a result, it is now the usual practice to transport such lading in hopper cars having discharge gate assemblies specially designed for the purpose and not to resort to cars having conventional or general purpose discharge gate assemblies, even when the special purpose cars are in short supply. It is to these problems that the present invention is principally directed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved railway hopper car discharge gate assembly suitable for use in transporting finely divided lading and requiringbut minor changes in a conventional assembly.

Another object of the invention is to provide a discharge gate assembly for handling finely divided lading, the changes required for which in a conventional assembly not only are minor but are completely reversible, so that, as desired, the changes can be either permanent or temporary.

Whether made initially as an entity or by conversion in situ or elsewhere of a conventional assembly, the improved discharge gate assembly depends for sealing against leakage of finely divided lading upon fixing means to the sides and back of the gate frame for pressing the gate into tight engagement with corresponding parts of its seat and elsewhere filling spaces between the gate and the frame with plastic cement. In its preferred embodiment, the improved assembly has as its fixed means at the sides spring or resilient plates welded along their 3,621,793 Patented Nov. 23, 1971 outer edges to sides of the frame and sloping downwardly and inwardly therefrom beyond the contiguous sides of the gate for engagement with the latters upper surface. Both laterally overlapping the gate and, when unrestrained, spaced at their inner edges above the sides of the seat less than the thickness of the gate, the preferred side plates both shield and seat sides from direct exposure to lading and yieldably press thereagainst the sides of the door. At the rear where there is contact between the gate and its seat only when the gate is closed, shielding is not necessary and the fixed means can simply be bendable or resilient hold-down bloc-ks deflected upwardly by the leading or rear edge of the gate on closing of the latter. Both the side plates and rear hold-down blocks and the plastic cement filling can be either temporary or permanent additions to the basic assembly, depending on whether the particular hopper car is to be used but once or intermittently or even continuously in transporting finely divided lading.

The foregoing and other objects and features of the invention will appear hereinafter in the detailed description, be particularly pointed out in the appended claims and be illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 is a plan vie-w of a preferred embodiment of the improved discharge gate assembly of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view on an enlarged scale taken along lines 22 of FIG. 1, showing the assembly applied to a bottom portion of a suitable hopper of a railway hopper car;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on the scale of FIG. 2, taken along lines 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on the scale of FIG. 2 taken along lines 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view on a further enlarged scale taken along lines 5-5 of FIG. 4 but with additional parts broken away and shown in section to more clearly illustrate certain details of the construction;

IFIG. 6 is a fragmentary front end elevational view of the front corner structure shown partly in plan in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along lines 7-7 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along lines 8-8 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along lines 99 of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along lines 10-10 of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION finely divided or comrninuted lading to be transported without leakage therein.

Designated as 1, the improved discharge gate assembly of the present assembly in its preferred embodiment is conventional in combining the three usual components or elements of discharge gate assemblies used on railway hopper cars, a gate frame 2 bounding a discharge opening 3, a gate 4 slidable in the frame between positions to open and close the opening, and a drive 5 for driving the gate between open and closed positions. In the components themselves, the preferred assembly 1 also is basically conventional. Thus, the frame 2 is weldable or otherwise fixable to side sheets 6 of a downwardly opening hopper 7, bounds or contains the discharge opening 3 for the hopper, and surrounds that opening at the sides and rear by an upwardly facing seat 8 for the gate 4 and at the front by a front wall 9 interrupted by an opening or slot 10 extending laterally or transversely of the frame 2 and of a length and width to receive the gate. In turn, the gate 4, conventionally, is a flat plate sliding or riding at its sides on the sides, side portions or side rails 11 and at the rear onto the rear or rear portion 12 of the seat 8, and having fixed to its underside or undersurface 13 one or more longitudinally extending racks 14 of the suitably conventional rack-and-pinion drive 5.

In the foregoing respects a conventional, general purpose discharge gate assembly, the improved assembly 1 departs from the conventional in embodying or incorporating changes or modifications, which, while relatively minor and preferably completely reversible, fully adapt it for use in handling or transporting without leakage finely divided lading. So minor as readily to be made in situ in a conventional assembly already installed in a hopper car, the changes may be either temporary or permanent, depending on whether the particular car is to be pressed into service for filling a temporary shortage of hopper cars equipped with discharge gate assemblies specially designed for handling finely divided lading, or thereafter is to be used intermittently or even continuously in such service.

Incident to the changes over a conventional discharge gate assembly required for adapting it for use in handling finely divided lading, the improved assembly 1 preferably has guide means on or fixed to the frame 2 for guiding the gate 4 in proper longitudinal alignment and against relative lateral or vertical angling or canting as it slides between open and closed positions on the sides 11 of the seat 8. The preferred guide means include a plurality of fixed guide 'blooks spaced longitudinally along the seat side, side rail or slideway 11 at or in each side of the frame 2 and engageable with the adjoining side 15 of the gate for limiting lateral movement of the latter relative to the frame. Of the guide blocks at each side, at least one is an inner block 16 positioned or contained within the frame 2 inside or rearwardly of the front wall 9 and within the longitudinal limits of the discharge opening 3, and another is an outer block 17 positioned along the adjoining seat side or slideway '11 outwardly or forwardly of the front wall.

As opposed to the inner blocks 16, the outer blocks 17 not only have inwardly facing side walls 1 8 confronting or presented to the adjoining sides 15- of the gate 4, but also have top walls in the form of flanges 19 instanding from the side walls over the side rails 11 and overlapping or overlying the upper face or surface 20 of the gate 4 adjacent its sides, thus rendering the outer blocks capable of restraining both lateral and vertical canting of the gate relative to the frame. For limiting or fixing the extremes of its longitudinal movement relative to the frame, the gate 4 suitably carries on its upper face 20 a fixed, laterally extending stop block 21 adapted in a gate-closing operation to abut against or engage the outside of the front wall 9 for limiting the closing movement and fixing the closed position of the gate. For the illustrated stub-railed frame, the gates movement in the opposite 4 or opening direction can readily be limited by the now usual expedient (not shown) of blocking the inner end portions of the racks 17 against intermeshing with or feeding through the pinions 22 of the drive 5.

So restrained in lateral and vertical canting and limited in longitudinal movement relative to the frame 2 in sliding between open and closed positions therein on the side rails 11 forming the sides of the seat 8, the slide or discharge gate 4 in closed position seats at the sides and rear on the side rails and the preferably coplanar rear portion 12 of the seat connecting the side rails at the rear.

No structure, other than that already described, is needed for general purpose use, although, if desired, one or more rear hold-down blocks 23 might be added to the frame 2 for loosely receiving the rear of the gate in its closed position and thereby restraining relative vertical movement of the gate and frame in that area. In such an assembly, the gate would be both too loose in its seat and too exposed to handle cement or other finely divided lading without excessive leakage. However, it, as more or less exemplary of a conventional assembly, can readily be adapted for such use if altered to incorporate the relatively minor but effective changes or modifications now to be described.

In general, the changes involved in adapting the improved assembly 1 for use in handling finely divided lading, are additions to rather than changes in the basic structure. The necessary changes include a pair of suitably fiat metal spring plates 24 at opposite sides of the discharge opening 3 and each welded or otherwise fixed or secured to an adjoining side or side wall 25 of the frame 2 above both the gate seat 8 and the gate 4. Connected along their outer edges to the side walls 25 and extending therealong for substantially the full length thereof at that level between the frames front wall 9 and rear wall 26, the spring plates 24 instand from their line of connection to the side walls and therefrom incline or slope inwardly and downwardly into overlapping relation, each with the adjoining side rail and side of the gate.

Terminating inwardly within the lateral bounds or limits of the side rail 11, each side spring plate 24, when the gate 4 is removed, has a free vertical clearance or spacing between its inner edge and the side rail that is less than the thickness of the corresponding portion of the gate. To receive or accommodate the gate therebetween and the side rails 11, the spring plates 24 therefore must deflect, bend or yield upwardly laterally to compensate for the initial or unrestrained difference in the spacing between their inner edges and the side rails 11 and the thickness of the gate. Given suflicient resistance thereto, the spring plates in so bending will apply an opposing downward spring force on their own inner edges and, therethrough, on the gate sides pressing or urging the latter into tight sealing engagement with both the underlying side rails and the overlying inner edges of the spring plates. Extending forwardly sufficiently to longitudinally overlap the gate 4 to some extent even in the latters open position, the spring plates 24, in a gate-closing operation, will bend upwardly progressively from front to back and correspondingly spread or separate their inner edges from the underlying side rails 11 as the gates rear end 27 moves therebetween to closed position. So acting as springs for pressing the sides of the gate tightly between themselves and the side rails 11, the spring plates 24, by virtue of their inward and downward inclination from their lines of connection to the side walls 25, will also act as shields or deflectors for deflecting or directing lading inwardly away from the side rails in all positions of the gate and thus prevent an accumulation or build up of lading on the side rails that otherwise could interfere with tight sealing contact or engagement at least between the gate and the side rails, if not also between the gate and the inner edges of the spring plates.

In the course of establishing an in effect double seal at the sides between the gate 4 and the frame 2, on full closing of the gate, the side spring plates 24 also exert a downward force urging the gear end or end portion 27 of the gate into tight sealing engagement with the rear portion 12 of the seat 8 on or formed in the rear wall 26. However, due to the breadth or lateral span of the gate, the downward force of the spring plates 24, alone, ordinarily will not sufiice to produce the necessary tight sealing engagement between the rear seat portion 12 and the gate over the entire width of the latter. Consequently, in the gates closed position, the downward force exerted on the rear portion thereof by the side spring plates 24 is supplemented or augmented by the combined downward spring or yieldable force suitably exerted by a plurality of the rear hold-down blocks 23. Conventionally, these blocks are fixed to an instand from and are laterally spaced along the rear wall 26, but, unconventionally, in this case are either initially disposed or thereafter bent or deformed downwardly to reduce the vertical clearance or spacing therebetween and the seats rear portion, so that they too must deflect, bend or yield upwardly to receive or accommodate the rear end of the gate. With the holddown bars 23 bevelled forwardly to enable them to ride up on or be deflected upwardly by the rear end portion 27 f the gate as it approaches closed position and space between the rear wall 26 and the gates rear end into 'which the gate in reaching closed position can push out of its way any particles of lading accumulated on the seats rear portion 12, the assembly 1, when the gate is closed, will be sealed effectively against leakage of finely divided lading at the rear, as well as at the sides.

In adapting the improved assembly 1 for use in handling finely divided lading, there remain for sealing in the closed position of the gate 4 only the joints or interstices between the front portions of the frame and the gate to which the seat 8 does not extend and for which the sealing pressure exertable by the spring blocks 23 and plates 24 is not available. In the preferred assembly, the joints so exposed are that between the upper surface 20 of the gate and the confronting upper edge of the gate-receiving opening in the frames front wall 9 and those between the gate and the outer guide blocks 17.

These joints can be sealed with any plastic cement which, while effective as a sealant, either inherently or as applied, is incapable of establishing a bond between the gate and the frame of suflicient strength to interfere with subsequent opening of the gate. If the sealing is for a single use, caulking forming a skin impervious to the intended lading when exposed to air, can be applied by a gun directly to the joints. However, for a permanent change adapting the asseumbly for intermittent or continuous use in such service, the plastic cement should be bonded at each joint to one but not both of the gate and frame members as by applying the cement with the surface or surfaces on one of the members either out of the way or pretreated with a silicone or other suitable release agent. The cement so used can be of any of the available types that will bond to the surface to which it is applied and remain elastic, but, after a short interval, be incapable of adhering to another surface. For such a permanent installation, the preferred application of the suitable plastic cement is as a triangular-sectioned bead 28 applied to the upper surface 20 of the door 4 immediately in advance of the stop block 21 thereon for closing the opening 10 at the outer side of the front wall 9, and as a filler 29 of suitable configuration and thickness applied to the gatecon-fronting walls 18 and 19 of the outer guide blocks 17.

Not only are the foregoing changes readily made and entirely effective in adapting a hopper car for handling finely divided lading, but the changes are as readily reversible. Thus, if at any time it is desired to revert or convert back an improved assembly 1 to a conventional assembly, the spring plates 24 and any extra hold-down block 23 can be chipped or burned off, the cement removed with a suitable solvent and the remaining blocks pounded upwards to clear the gate.

From the above detailed description, it will be apparent that there has been provided an improved discharge gate assembly, which, while suitable for either temporary or permanent use in handling finely divided lading, involves but minor, reversible changes over a conventional assembly. It should be understood that the described and disclosed embodiment is merely exemplary of the invention and that all modifications are intended to be included that do not depart from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

Having described my invention, I now claim:

1. A discharge gate assembly for a railway hopper car for transporting finely divided lading, comprising a gate frame mountable on a hopper of said car and bounding a discharge opening therefor, side rails on side walls of said frame at opposite sides of said opening, a rear surface on a rear wall of said frame at a rear of said opening and connecting to and forming with said side rails an upwardly facing seat, a gate slidable longitudinally in said frame on said side rails between positions to open and close said opening and in closed position seating at the rear on said rear surface, spring plates fixed to said side walls above and yieldably acting downwardly on said gate for pressing said gate against said side rails over the range of movement of said gate between open and closed positions, said spring plates in the closed position of said gate pressing said gate into sealing engagement with said side rails, spring means fixed to said rear wall and in the closed position of said gate yieldably acting downwardly thereon for pressing a rear portion thereof into sealing engagement with said rear surface, and plastic sealing means sealing in the closed position of said gate any joints between front portions of said gate and frame exposed to lading in said hopper.

2. A discharge gate assembly according to claim 1, wherein the spring plates are metal plates welded along outer edges thereof to the frame side walls and extending inwardly therefrom each into laterally overlapping relation with the adjoining side rail and side portion of the gate.

3. A discharge gate assembly according to claim 2, wherein the normal minimum vertical clearance between each spring plate and the adjoining side rail is less than the thickness of the gate at a corresponding portion thereof, and upward lateral bending of the spring plates in accommodating the gate therebetween and the side rails produces the downward force responsible for sealing against leakage of lading at the sides of the discharge opening in the closed position of the gate.

4. A discharge gate assembly according to claim 3, wherein the spring plates longitudinally overlap the gate over the range of movement thereof between open and closed positions, and the gate in closed position has upper and lower surfaces thereof in sealing contact respectively with the spring plates and the side rails.

5. A discharge gate assembly according to claim 4, wherein the spring plates slope inwardly and downwardly from the side walls substantially to the adjoining sides of the discharge opening for shielding the space therebetween and the side rails from overlying lading.

6. A discharge gate assembly according to claim 2, wherein the rear spring means are a plurality of deformable spring blocks fixed to and spaced laterally along the frames rear wall between the spring plates, the normal minimum vertical clearance between the spring blocks and the rear seat surface in the frame is less than the thickness of the gate along a corresponding rear portion thereof, and the blocks in yielding upwardly to accommodate said gate rear portion of the gate therebetween and the rear seat surface react downwardly against the gate for pressing said rear portion and seat surface into sealing engagement.

7. A discharge gate assembly according to claim 6, wherein the spring plates and blocks coact on the gate in the closed position thereof for sealing against leakage between side and rear portions of the gate and frame.

8. A discharge gate assembly according to claim 1, wherein the plastic sealing means is plastic cement, and, at each joint between the gate and frame front portions, the cement sealing the joint in the gates closed position is bonded to one and releasably engages the other of the gate and frame.

9. A discharge gate assembly according to claim 8, wherein the plastic cement is permanently elastic.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8 2,602,402 7/1952 Sanford, Jr. et al. 105424 X 3,100,456 8/1963 Dorey 105424 X 3,130,687 4/1964 Smith 105282 RP 3,133,509 5/1964 Farmer 105282 RP X 2,250,524 7/1941 Dietrichson 105282 A X 2,989,008 6/ 1961 Lindstrom 105282 A X 3,224,382 12/1965 Floehr 105305 X 3,415,204 12/1968 Pase 105-305 X ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner H. BELTRAN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

